Tag: Berlin

First published in 1996, Jason Lutes’ historical comic heads toward its conclusion.

At Comic-Con International, Drawn and Quarterly announced that Jason Lutes’ long-running historical epic Berlin will see its final collection, Berlin: City of Lights, released in the fall of 2018. They also plan to release a deluxe hardcover of the complete trilogy at that time.

“Berlin will stand as a singular achievement in comics—an ambitious and detailed exploration of a fascinating time in history by a cartoonist operating at the peak of his talent,” said D+Q Executive Editor Tom Devlin. “I’ve read the numerous chapters of Berlin many times over the years and each time I come away in awe of Jason Lutes’ precision in portraying real people during a time so tumultuous that it could easily overshadow their humanity.”

The comics market is growing, but monthly comics are not. Also: A week of great comics articles from NPR!

By the Numbers: The comics market increased by 5% to a total of $1.085 billion in 2016, according to an estimate by Milton Griepp of ICv2 and John Jackson Miller of Comichron. Graphic novels sold in bookstores accounted for almost all the growth, however; they were up 16%, while sales of monthly comics in comic shops, on newsstands, and in digital format remained flat. Griepp saw the graphic novel growth as evidence that the market is expanding, as more women and children find graphic novels, while Miller credited Marvel’s Star Wars comics and DC’s Rebirth event.

Whatever Happened to comiXology? Three years after the largest digital comics service was purchased by Amazon, they still have plenty going on, says comics-biz maven Rob Salkowitz, including using Amazon’s “affinity marketing” (if you liked this, you’ll like that) tools, expanding to foreign audiences, and bringing in new readers via the ComiXology Unlimited, Kindle Unlimited, and Prime Reading programs.